This past Tuesday, November 10, 2009, I finally did what a lot of friends and family were hoping for and proposed to Jess, my girlfriend of over 2.5 years. Actually, it was 2 years, 8 months (to the day in fact).

What follows, is the story of how I went about becoming the happiest guy imaginable.

The Ring

I wanted to make sure I had the ring before I started anything. To me, this was one of the most important parts. Jess and I had already looked at rings together about a month prior, so I knew what she liked and what she would want. Using that knowledge, I picked out the ring I would give her: a Scott Kay palladium solitaire ring.

Once I had the ring figured out, I needed to get a diamond. This is where taking my time and doing my proper research really paid off. I ended up going online and ordering a 0.85 carat, VS1 clarity, I color, Ideal Cut Round Brilliant diamond from Excel Diamonds. I cannot say enough great things about Barry and Judah at Excel Diamonds. The quality of diamond I received at the price I paid could not be matched by anyone.

With diamond in hand, it was time to go get it set and have the ring sized and made. I didn’t have enough money right away so I put the ring on layaway. This worked out very well as I was able to get the ring made, and it would be ready once I had the money.

When I brought in the diamond to be set, the associate who helped me tested the ring to make sure it matched the GIA certificate I got with my diamond. She measured, weighed, probed and scoped the diamond; everything checked out as it should. Before sending the ring off to be made, she asked the value of the diamond for insurance purposes. I asked, “so I should tell you how much I paid for it?”. “Yes” she replied. I told her, and she was visibly taken aback at the amount I told her. “You look surprised? Is that a good price?” “That is an extremely good price for this diamond!” I cracked a small smile.

I left the store, confident in my purchases, and waited until I as ready to get the ring. After a little bit of time, I had the money to pick up the ring. I went to the jeweler and saw the ring with the diamond set in it; it was gorgeous. I began to really get excited.

Getting the Families On Board

Monday night, the night before the proposal, I went over to my parents and told them I intended to propose to Jess “tomorrow night”. Their faces lit up and were very excited. My dad stood up instantly and hugged me and said “congratulations”; my mom said, “well it’s about time”, obviously indicating this was something the family had been anticipating and anxiously awaiting.

I said “good bye” to my parents, went outside to my car, and sat in my car in my parents’ driveway and called Jess’s parents, who live about 90 minutes north of us. I started the conversation by saying, “I’m sorry for doing this over the phone, this is something I wanted to discuss with you yesterday when we were up there, but someone, who goes by the name of ‘Jessica’ did not want to leave the house and I couldn’t talk to you guys alone.” I informed them of my intentions to marry their daughter, and asked for their blessing. Her dad said, “that would be wonderful!” Her mom said, “you know I won’t be able to sleep tonight now, this is exciting!” I then asked if they would be willing to drive down to San Diego the following night, and they agreed (once again I had apologized for such short notice, but they were excited).

With blessings from both families secured, I went about enacting my plan.

Putting the Plan in Action

Jess had school Tuesday morning, and work Tuesday afternoon. She actually wasn’t originally supposed to work on Tuesday, but picked up a shift, which worked in her favor as it allowed me to do everything I needed to do. Since she would be home for a period of time around noon, I knew I couldn’t do anything with the house until she went to work or else I would tip her off.

I went to work for the morning, but then I told her I was leaving around 12:30 to have lunch with a co-worker. At 12:30, I headed up to Bed Bath and Beyond and picked up a bag of 100 tea lights and some champagne flutes (we had none). Then I went to the grocery store and picked up fixin’s for dinner, a bottle of her favorite champagne, a dozen roses, and two bags of rose petals.

I returned home around 1:30, narrowly missing Jess as she went to work just 10 minutes prior to my returning home. I set to work on getting everything done I needed to, starting with dinner. I browned the pot roast and got it cooking in the crock pot. I then thoroughly cleaned up the kitchen and front room.

With about 2 hours to go before she returned home from work, I began working on our bedroom. I started by cleaning everything up, and then made the bed. I cleaned off the dresser and night stands and Pledged it all so it was nice and clean. I finished everything up by vacuuming the entire condo; let’s just say the house had not been this clean in months.

I placed about 50 tea lights throughout the room: on the dresser, TV stand, night stands, anything I could. I put the dozen roses on her night stand, and two champagne flutes underneath the roses. I placed her favorite teddy bear, Rocky, which she’s had since she was five years-old on the center of the bed.

I opened the first bag of rose petals and dumped them on the bed. I originally was going to just randomly place them on the bed, but that didn’t look so good; instead, I shaped all the rose petals into the shape of a heart. Using the second bag of petals, I sprinkled them all over the dresser and night stands (wherever there wasn’t a candle basically). Finally, I poured the champagne into the flutes.

Then, the most important part: I placed the ring box on the bear so it looked like he was holding it.

The stage was set, I was all ready to go.

Waiting

Normally Jess leaves work around 5:30PM, but tonight she was running a bit late. I get a call at almost 5:50, she was just leaving. We had discussed dinner, and I said I had figured something out and that the chicken was thawing out (I can’t keep my lies straight, probably a good thing). I already had everything set up, the candles all lit, and at this point was just pacing back and forth in the house waiting for her to make the drive home. It felt like this was her longest drive home, I was just so anxious.

I saw her drive up and I went back into the bedroom where everything was set up, and waited.

The Proposal

She came inside and called out to me, “hi”, I answered from the bedroom, “Hi”.

She walked upstairs, saw the clean house, “Why is the house so clean? When did you get home to clean?”

“Oh, I got home about 4:30 and the house was bugging me so I cleaned.”

Walking into the kitchen because she smelled the pot roast, “wait, this isn’t chicken? Why aren’t we having chicken?”

“I told you I figured dinner out. Can you come back here?”

“Why? What are you doing back there?”

“Will you just come back here please?”

She walks into the bedroom and looks at me, “What’s going on? Why are you dressed so nicely?” I could see it in her face, she knew what was going on. She started to get excited and tear up a little.

I said, “I think this is something you’ve been waiting a while for, and was hoping it would happen soon.” I grabbed her hands and looked in her eyes, and began pouring my heart out to her, choking back the tears.

After professing my love for her, I took the ring box from Rocky and got down on one knee, opened the box and said, “Jessica, will you marry me?” Well actually, she didn’t let me finish, she shouted “OF COURSE!” before I could even finish asking her.

She was still staring me in the eyes and never once looked at the ring, I said, “okay well will you look at the ring?” She took a look and smiled even more. I put the ring on her finger (the perfect size mind you), stood up and she just attacked me with hugs and kisses. We hugged for such a long time, because it was such a momentous occasion, but also because she was admiring the shiny new diamond ring she had on her finger while hugging me.

We toasted to each other with the champagne I already had poured, and I then informed her that her family was already on the way down from Riverside, and they’d be having dinner with us at the condo. She started clapping and let out a giggle.

Sharing the Joy

She was so giddy and excited that she literally was jumping up and down and staring at her hand. With her still in her work clothes, I said, “Okay, time to change, we need to go see my parents.” She was just so excited to show it off, she just shouted, “OKAY!!”

We went to my parents and they popped another bottle of champagne and we toasted there, hugged and just shared in the happiness together. We left my parents around 7:00 so I could finish making dinner and we could meet her parents at the condo. The parents were anxious to meet each other, so we invited my parents over for dessert around 8:30. We would have had them over for dinner too, but we don’t have enough room to host that many people (yet).

Her parents got there around 7:20 (they hit traffic) and they gave us a gift. Jess asked, “Do you mind if I just open it?” I said, “Yes I mind. That’s ‘our’ gift, and our first one since becoming an engaged couple, so we can open it together.” They had gotten us a beautiful pair of Waterford crystal champagne flutes (these: http://bit.ly/2BYBSD ). Her mom said we could use them for the wedding itself, but that doesn’t mean we had to wait until the wedding to use them, we christened them right then with what else, MORE CHAMPAGNE!

Anyway, we had dinner and had just finished cleaning up when my parents arrived. What better occasion for the parents to meet, right? They hit it off and got along well. We all sat around talking for about an hour, while Jess’s and my phones were lighting up with calls, texts, emails, and Facebook notifications. At one point I had 8 unread texts, 19 unread emails, and phone calls kept coming in.

Unwinding

The parents all left around 10:00, and Jess and I unwound in front of our computers; both of us answering and addressing all the Facebook posts and comments we received.

Jess later told me that everything I had done was all she could have ever wished for, she could not ask for anything better. She loves her ring and she loves the way I proposed. And anyone she tells the story to just has the same response, “awwwww”, which is all she wanted from me for a proposal. Her favorite part was that I used Rocky as part of the proposal and he was holding the ring, she thought that was the cutest thing ever.

The funny thing is, she doesn’t remember anything I said to her during the actual proposal, she was too busy going “OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG” in her head to comprehend what I was saying.

We went to bed just before 11:00 and both just collapsed; it had been a whirlwind of a day. One happy day neither of us will ever forget.

And now the fun that is planning a wedding begins …